The Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health

I wanted to give our readers an update on the progress of the new Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health. I am happy to report that we have successfully brought on board a great leader for the Masters Program in Health Care Quality and Safety, namely Dr Susan DesHarnais from Penn State Medical School at Hershey. Susan is an accomplished scholar and teacher who will be responsible for this program in the new school. We have finished our new school bylaws which we hope will be approved by the Board of the University at their winter meeting. We have begun to sculpt the content and sequence of the key courses across several of the Masters Programs and they are coming together nicely. We have accessed additional space on our campus to house many of our new recruits. Our new book on healthcare governance will be out very shortly and we will add this book to our other faculty edited texts, currently in use in the program.We are about to confirm a new communications director and very shortly, we will be publishing our first of many new brochures. For now, please visit our expanding web site at www.jefferson.edu/jshpph/. Thanks again for your support and I sure would like to hear from you. What do you think of our efforts to date?? Where do you think our initial class roster will come from?? What would YOU put in a Masters program in quality and safety?? Thanks for our support, DAVID NASH

Jefferson Board Approves a NEW SCHOOL !!!!

On July 28th, the Jefferson University Board of Trustees unanimously approved the creation of a unique new school called the JEFFERSON SCHOOL OF HEALTH POLICY and POPULATION HEALTH after carefully reviewing a proposal created by a task force from our Department of Health Policy. This Task Force met regularly for nearly nine months and presented its finding to an on campus Advisory Committee, and to two subcommittees of the Board as well. After gathering input from many stakeholders I am so proud to report that the new school will be created by some key organizational shifts on our campus---namely, moving our Dept of Health Policy out of the Medical College, where it has been since its inception 19 years ago, and combining it with the already successful MPH Program currently housed in the Graduate School of the University. Hence, these two entities, our Dept and the MPH Program, will serve as the nidus of the new school. In a nutshell, our school will offer a series of Masters Degrees including the MPH, a Masters in Health Policy and two innovative degrees---a Masters in Health Care Quality and Safety AND finally, a Masters in Chronic Care Coordination. Shortly, we will be creating a new website exclusively focused on the new school but I was anxious to get this very exciting news out to our consituents around the nation.I will begin a series of postings as we make progress on the new school and will strive to keep you posted as to the challenges and accomplishments as we move forward with the vision. Remember, if you are not a part of the solution for fixing the broken health care system, you are automatically a part of the problem!! Let me know what you think and thanks for your support, DAVID NASH

What a week for Health Policy at Jefferson!!

First, thanks to all those persons who have been viewing our new videos and for your comments. Now I would like to review several key events on our campus here at Jefferson last week. The Chief Health Policy Advisor for the Clinton Campaign was our featured lunch speaker last Monday and Andrea Palm did a great job outlining the candidate's position and taking questions from the nearly standing room only crowd of medical students. Remember, the big PA Primary is tomorrow!! On Wednesday of last week we featured a campus wide AOA Forum on the Future of Primary Care with representatives from our faculty as well as experts from Independence Blue Cross and Take Care Health. We had a spirited discussion and concluded that reform of the payment system is critical if primary care is to survive. Finally, we capped off the week with a special visit from Dr Richard Carmona, the 17th Surgeon General of the United States who discussed the need for our nation to focus on better coordination of persons with chronic illness. He was adamant that our single biggest contribution toward better health for the nation would be to get our patients to stop smoking. Dr. Carmona also reviewed briefly our plans to launch the Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health and he applauded our efforts and voiced a sincere desire to get personally involved. What a week for health policy on our campus!! DAVID B. NASH

Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health

Good afternoon.The blog is picking up some speed!! I wanted to let everyone know about some new plans we have afoot on campus. We have been asked by the university President to begin the planning for a possible new school--that's right,a new school to join the other Health Care Colleges on the campus of Jefferson University. The new school is tentatively called, "The Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health" or JSHPPH. We plan to offer up to three Master's degress including the MPH,a Master's in Health Policy and a totally new degree, the Master's in Health Care Quality and Safety. I need your input here. What do you think about this new school idea?? What are the competencies that we should be seeking in each of the degree programs?? What sort of student should we seek?? I am very excited about all the possibilities here and will have more to say about this in the next few weeks but for now, I would like to hear from all of you about our challenge. Thanks for your support, DAVID NASH